Radio industry criticises BBC pay and 'significant inefficiencies'

The Radio Centre, the commercial industry's trade body, has accused BBC Radio of allowing "excessive levels of talent and management pay", the Guardian reports.

In an official submission to the BBC Trust over review of BBC Radios 3, 4 and 7 based on a report from the independent consultants Value Partners, the industry body also said that "significant inefficiencies" remain at the corporation.

Radio Centre noted that it was "extremely disappointed" that very little progress has been made in ensuring that the corporation was delivering value for money.

It added that progress on efforts to benchmark the BBC's costs against commercial radio, as outlined by the trust last year, had come to a halt.

The industry body claimed that Radio 3's output is becoming "increasingly popularised" and marks a dilution of its core public service output. It added that Radio 3 should maintain its distinctiveness during peak time and not just during off-peak periods.

It also appealed to the BBC to share some of its children's programming with the commercial radio.

A BBC spokesman responded saying: "We remain committed to ensuring value for money for licence fee payers and have made proposals to the BBC Trust on how we can best compare costs with the commercial sector."